How it was
Once Marina, flipping through her feed in VK, saw an advertisement that a serious international logistics company needed Russian-speaking representatives in Germany. Work experience was not required, knowledge of foreign languages was also not required. It was enough to have an address of permanent residence in Germany. When she clicked on the link in the ad, she saw an ad like this:
Vadim and Marina moved to Berlin under the Blaue Karte program about a year before the events described. Vadim worked as a developer, and Marina studied German and did housework. By that time Marina had a German B1 level, but she did not have speaking practice. Therefore, getting a normal job in a German company was problematic, and there was no desire to go to work in cleaning or as a waitress. Marina lived in Berlin, knew Russian and wanted to use these factors as an advantage when applying for a job.
Seeing such a vacancy, Marina immediately understood that this was what she needed. She contacted the employer via WhatsApp. The company's manager emailed her with detailed information about the firm and the job.
According to legend, there is one large Russian logistics company that helps with the delivery of goods from European online stores that are not sent directly to Russia. To do this, they need postal agents who have a permanent address in Germany. The company orders goods in your name and your address in Germany, and you forward it to the end consumer in Russia, Ukraine or Belarus. The job is very simple. You just need to receive the parcel at your home address, open it, take a photo of the contents, pack it again and send it further to a new address. Payment of 900 euros per month + 20 euros for each parcel. Payment at the end of each full month worked by transfer to PayPal or Western Union. The job is simple and the pay is good. Spending just a couple of hours a day, "you can" earn a couple of thousand euros per month. The idea is super !!!A good raise to my husband's salary. Marina decided not to say anything to her husband - she will tell her when she receives her first salary.
The manager sent Marina by e-mail "Labor Agreement". Marina filled out the agreement, signed, scanned and sent back. They also demanded scans of her documents and account details at a German bank.
And then ... Then Marina began to receive parcels from various stores to her address. At first, it was all small things like clothes or webcams. And when the employer realized that he had found a responsible
A month and one week passed, but a serious company was in no hurry to settle accounts with Marina. The manager referred to the accounting department, which for some reason did not register a new employee on time and did not include her in the payroll. He promised on oath that she had already been included in the next statement, and in two weeks she was guaranteed to receive everything in full and even an advance payment for the next month.
A week later, Marina still managed to surprise her husband. But not in the way she expected. In the mailbox, the husband found an invoice from one of the online stores with the requirement to pay for the laptop bought by his wife for 2000 euros.
It was some kind of mistake! After all, it was one of those laptops that she sent to a buyer in Russia a few days ago. The husband, having learned about the details of the new job, immediately told Marina that it was
But her manager did not respond during the day. And the next day he didn't answer either. But Marina received another bill from another store. Again, it was the item she had sent.
And a day later, Marina's doorbell rang. Several members of the Berlin Criminal Police with a search warrant were standing next to the DHL courier, which had brought another batch of parcels. Marina was charged with crimes committed within the framework of the articles of the FRG Criminal Code "Fraud" (Betrug, § 263 StGB ) and Money Laundering ( Geldwäsche, § 261 ). Under the first article, the punishment is from six months to ten years in prison, and under the second from one to five.
And then there were tears, interrogations, lawyers and courts with the prospect of a prison term for Marina and the prospect of dismissal and deportation for Vadim. Honestly, the work was so-so.
Bank account for two people
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Marina, in search of easy money, fell for the bait of scammers who are looking for gullible compatriots abroad. This is the third such case in the past six months among my friends. Fraudsters, using data from stolen credit cards or stolen accounts of online stores, order goods in the name of the victim. The victim receives them in his own name and address, and then sends these goods herself to the countries of the former USSR. This sacrifice is often called a drop.
In addition, Germany has one more feature. The product can be purchased with payment by invoice. Just like in Russia legal entities sell goods to each other with a deferred payment. You register on the site, enter your full details and the details of your bank account. The store requests your credit history from the credit bureau. If the credit history is good, they can send the goods and issue an invoice for payment with a grace period of 14 days. Marina and Vadim had good credit history, which was also used by the scammers. They ordered the goods on behalf of Marina to her own address. Marina received this item and signed it upon receipt. And for the online store and the police, it looks like an absolutely legitimate order, as if Marina herself had issued it.
What scammers look like in reality
Let's take a look at what typical scammers in Germany offer us and what is wrong in their offers (but everything is not so there).
- Let's look again at the screenshot of the vacancy at KDPV. The vacancy does not contain any information about the employer at all. No names, company names or addresses. Just a phone number and please contact WhatsApp. For me, this is immediately a sign that this is not normal work at all, but some kind of slag with a probability of 98%. For additional verification, simply call this phone number and hear that the subscriber with the specified number does not exist.
KDPV once again - We write to them in WhatsApp, we receive details with a description of the vacancy by e-mail. The text of the letter is quite standard, there is nothing special except attachments.
Letter from scammers
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Otherwise, everything is according to the classics of the genre. The domain was registered less than a year ago, although the "successful" company has existed since 2004. Invalid SSL certificate issued by apkmodgame.info etc. etc. Student craft made "on knees" in a couple of days.
Everything just screams that “this is all” cannot be a serious company. But do not flatter yourself. There are scammers who make every element of divorce in the upper class and it may not be so easy to recognize a fake. Probably, this is the area where gullible people are carried on and so. And there is no point in bothering with a good website, employment contract and other details. Why strain more, if people already "hawala"?
What to do to avoid getting into a mess?
I will not describe the many mistakes that Marina made. I will describe only two main ones.
Knowledge of the Russian language in Germany is practically not an advantage when applying for a job
If you come to Germany, this does not mean at all that you can easily make money here without risk. The fact that you live in Berlin and know Russian does not give you a significant advantage over people who have the same qualifications but do not know Russian. If there is no proven qualification, then you are no better than the average Moroccan who lives in Berlin and speaks Arabic.
The maximum that can be counted on is an increase of 10-15% to the salary per month, and then only for qualified workers. For example, if a company pays a developer with knowledge of English and German 4,000 euros per month, then the same developer with knowledge of English, German and Russian will be paid 4,500 euros by the company and only if all three languages are required in the work. All!!! For unskilled personnel, knowledge of the Russian language is practically not an advantage. Quite the opposite. It is often possible to find companies consisting of immigrants from the former USSR who recruit former compatriots who speak poor German and pay even less than they pay in the market. They motivate it like this: well, you don't speak German well, but we take you and speak Russian, you don't need to learn German,therefore we will pay less. For reference: in Germany, out of 83 million citizens, more than 3 million people speak Russian fluently.
Finding an unskilled job in Germany with good pay is very, very difficult.
It is about as difficult as finding a job in Ryazan for 70,000 rubles for a 17-year-old boy right after leaving school.
The average salary of a taxi driver is 1300 € per month dirty ( upd: conditionally 1000 € per hand).
The average salary of a hairdresser is 1400 € per month dirty ( upd: conditionally 1050 € per hand).
Even an ordinary seller in a supermarket in Germany, who has a specialized secondary specialized education and 3+ years of experience, receives 1900 € per month dirty ( upd:conditionally 1350 € for hands). Therefore, 2,000 euros per month on hand for a couple of hours a day for sending parcels is unrealistic a lot. If everything were so simple, all Arabs and Turks in Germany would only do what they would send parcels to Russia.
What if you already hit it?
You need to immediately look for a lawyer. Since the parcel fraud scheme has existed for more than ten years, there are also experienced lawyers who have already won more than one similar case. In most cases, the lawyer will try to convince the court that the accused himself was a victim of fraudsters and did not have malicious intent in the commission of the crime. Often lawyers manage to fend off charges under § 170, paragraph 2 ( § 170 Entscheidung über eine Anklageerhebung, StPO ) of the German Code of Criminal Procedure due to the absence of corpus delicti in the actions of the accused, proving the absence of malicious intent. In the case of Marina and Vadim, they spent about 1000 euros on a lawyer. They also decided not to sue for three episodes and voluntarily compensated for the cost of three parcels (about 4000 euros more), which were ordered with payment on account in Marina's name.
However, I know one student who was able to fight off the accusations himself. He had no money at all for a lawyer, but he knew German well. Moreover, he received from scammers about 500 euros for the shipment and he did not even have to refuse this money. So the cases are different.
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